Eyes full of love, hand on her arm, Alexandra listens with infinite tenderness to her husband, Dmitri, when he recounts the day his left leg was torn off in a mine explosion.
It was on a battlefield in March 2022. Dmitry Matvienko was “clearing” Ukrainian trenches near his hometown, Donetsk, as part of an elite unit of pro-Russian separatists. before being seriously injured.
“I come to myself in the recovery room (…), I ask the doctors: if I understand correctly, I have no more leg? (…) They tell me, no, no more leg, but rejoice to be alive! And I’m happy to be alive,” the fellow recalled.
Amputated well above the left knee, Dmitri, 25, met during his convalescence Alexandra Makarova, 34, a “patriotic” writer who 100% supports Vladimir Putin’s offensive in Ukraine and his emblem, the letter “Z “.
They settled in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, and married in mid-November. In the photo sealing their union, Dmitri is on crutches and Alexandra in a beautiful white dress.
Together, they represent the Russia the Kremlin wants – heroic, traditional, militarized – and they intend to promote this image in all strata of Russian society, especially among young people.
Because here comes the “time of heroes”, as the Russian state media proclaims.
“A lot of people have left since the start of the special military operation (in Ukraine), fearful, unrespectable people. But as soon as I saw Dmitri… he was a hero, my hero,” says Alexandra to AFP.
In the spring of 2014, Dmitri was 16 when the war started in Ukraine. On four occasions, he said, the accommodation where he lived with his family, near Donetsk airport, was hit by shelling from “Ukrainian positions”.
Opposed to the “illegal” and “Russophobic” Maidan revolution in Kiev, in his words, Dmitri joined the separatist army, fought between 2018 and 2021, then was demobilized. In January 2022, in full tension before the February 24 offensive, he re-engaged.
On March 15, 2022, he took part in an attack on the town of Marinka, west of Donetsk. Objective: “to clear” Ukrainian trenches. He has forgotten nothing of this day and gives a detailed account of it, under the admiring gaze of his wife.
As he was about to throw a grenade into a Ukrainian shelter, he was hit in the right leg by a bullet “from a sniper or a machine gun” and, on the orders of his superior, began to return to the rear via a partially cleared path.
“I crawl, on all fours, as best I could, and that’s when I explode on a mine. Boom! At first I didn’t understand what had happened (…). They put time to evacuate, I don’t know how I survived.”
He was hospitalized for two months. In July, a Russian war correspondent invited him to a literary seminar near Moscow to share his experience. This is where he meets Alexandra. Reciprocal love at first sight.
“I was expecting to see old drunk veterans and there, I see this handsome young man,” says Alexandra.
Daughter of a former officer, Alexandra Makarova defends “traditional values”, opposes LGBT claims and says she has long sought a man “as strong” as her father, without success.
After working as a journalist, then in the press service of the Ministry of the Interior, she embarked on literature.
His latest novel is about a teacher confronted with students under the influence, deemed harmful, of an opponent similar to Alexeï Navalny.
Her husband Dmitry received compensation of three million rubles (38,000 euros) for his injury. He is waiting to receive a veteran’s certificate to obtain a low-interest loan and start a new life.
For now, he says he has no psychological after-effects, apart from a few nightmares and still suffering from “phantom pain” linked to his amputation. He declined the help of a psychologist. His love for Alexandra acts as therapy.
The two lovebirds now participate together in literary events.
In the bedroom of her 8-year-old daughter, the fruit of a previous union, Alexandra points to a magazine that recently published one of her short stories. “We are finally being recognized, us Z writers,” she rejoices.
Alexandra claims to fight “on the cultural front”, “to do non-brutal, delicate propaganda” and intends to apply for grants recently announced by Vladimir Putin to finance artistic projects supporting the offensive in Ukraine.
Twice a week, the young woman, a great admirer of Dostoyevsky, also gives lessons in literature and “patriotic education” to about fifteen teenagers, in the school in her neighborhood.
According to her, since she took care of them, these students perceive the conflict differently: “They now understand that we are a united people and that you have to be on the side of your state in the event of military operations. “
But, she says, many “enemies of the people” are still running in Russia, “liberals” opposed to the Kremlin. “If you’re a traitor, if it doesn’t suit you…”, begins Dmitri. “So the borders of the country are wide open”, slice Alexandra.
23/02/2023 14:35:32 – Nijni Novgorod (Russia) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP